Kit Hannah
Veteran
Thanks Squig.
27 Mb/s. Checked a few videos and they were all the same. That's in the 720p mode.
Decided to go the T1i route for now
- Thread starter Kit Hannah
- Start date
Thanks Squig.
27 Mb/s. Checked a few videos and they were all the same. That's in the 720p mode.
Kit Hannah
Veteran
Well, it's a pretty solid picture, especially at low ISO. This camera is by no means the end all, tell all. It is just something to get us by for the moment and it seems like it will do an alright job for us. So far we have been satisfied.
I will say this again though, from the looks of it, the 5D is a spectacular camera. If you are looking at a DSLR camera for high end acquisition, I would definitely spend the extra money and go with it. The T1i is a "prosumer" model but for what we do, it will work out fine.
Kit Hannah
Veteran
Price & availability. We considered the Pentax too, but it was $500 more just for the body.
Look, I'm sure the GH-1 is a nice camera, but it is twice the price. It was a business decision to go with the T1i. I know so many people buy these things on emotion. Believe me, I know. We got 2 HPX-500's a year and a half ago that were nice to have, but were not needed. Something like this is much more up our alley.
Nik Manning
Well-known member
Hmm maybe you could have sold the stock lens that came with the GH1? Anyway I am sure you will get what you need out of this camera.
Kit Hannah
Veteran
We could have done a lot of things, Nik. I really do appreciate your input, but the fact is that we decided on the Canon Rebel T1i and when I posted this, the title wasn't "gee, do you think I should have gotten a GH-1?". Not trying to be rude, everyone is definitely entitled to their opinion.
You can make all kinds of arguments either way for many of these cameras. I could have easily made the argument and justified to get the 5D. Fact is, it is more expensive and did more than what we need to do. Again, we make our buying decisions on need, not want.
There's no remorse on this side about getting the Rebel. It's a very nice camera. If you have a GH-1, great, if not, I hope you get one and post up some nice videos. In the meantime, we're sticking to our T1i. Perfectly happy with it.
Thanks
Kit
Superfresa66
Well-known member
Nice setup... i'm really considering going this route. The 5D is awesome, but i need footage that mixes in with the one from the HMC150, and i think the T1i is the better option. The 5D is too sharp if that could be a problem =)
I'm not saying i wouldn't get the 5D if i had the need & means for it... but the T1i is good alternative for now. I did some testing with it and I'm really happy with the results!
I might just copy your rig =)
I'm not saying i wouldn't get the 5D if i had the need & means for it... but the T1i is good alternative for now. I did some testing with it and I'm really happy with the results!
I might just copy your rig =)
Kit Hannah
Veteran
Thanks! Exactly. It's not by any means "top of the line" or "the best", but it works great fro the price. People don't buy HPX-500's if they can feasibly afford and justify using a 3000. but the 500 is good enough for many people's needs. So is the T1i.
Yeah, I really really like my rig. The matte box we purchased new from redrock, just by itself. They have a cinema package that comes with a follow focus too, and rails, some cage pieces, a base plate, a top handle, etc. It's pretty cool looking. It's about $2500ish by itself.
Here's a pic:
Its a pretty clean looking setup. But we decided to go with the Cavision base system because I found it used and it was cheap. Then we added on the H4N for the audio and we were set to go. Camera kit w/ lens, 5 batteries, 16GB SDHC card, Matte Box Deluxe w/ wings and flag, rail system w/ baseplate, extra clamp, Zoom H4N recorder, and a new set of tripod legs (already had the 516 Head, got some basic Giottos Legs), we were out the door for less than $2500, which coincidently is close to the price of the 5D body by itself. We actually had considered getting an HMC-150, but I convinced everyone that this was going to be a cooler setup and it would look more cinematic.
Here are some random pictures I took and some pictures from a local commercial for a dentist office we shot with the rig this past Friday. This is one of our shooters, Phil Torres, using the rig for the first time. He is a network affiliate news shooter part time and works part time for us. He was very skeptical of the rig, but by the end of the day he was singing it's praises. He's used to an ENG camera like us.
The rig as it stands now weighs roughly 10-11 pounds. We did use the tripod for the shoot that day, I just snapped some off the cuff pictures of the unit being handheld for a few minutes. We don't have the rig setup for handheld use yet really, but its actually amazing how well the image stabilization works while handholding. This next week, I may borrow my buddies smooth shooter package and glidecam 4000 and see if that works if I'm not too busy (who am I kidding, we're busy getting the monitors ready!). Eventually we will get a full cage type thing for it so the H4N is mounted in a better place. We do want to get a follow focus and once we have an extra hanD56 monitor built, we'll stick it on there too. Its so very cool that not only is it a video camera, but we used it to get some still shots too. very very cool.
Kit
Kit Hannah
Veteran
One more note: I really like Carbon Fiber rails for some reason - Everything else on the rig is black or anodized some color, I think stainless rails stick out like a sore thumb. And the Cavision Carbon rails are super light and super inexpensive compared to some of the others.
Kit Hannah
Veteran
The only lens we have at the moment is the kit lens that came with the camera. it's a 18-55mm with IS. Looks good enough for us. We may get a longer lens too, but for now we have what we need.
Obviously if you get fixed prime lenses, they aren't going to have external movements, but our setup works fine. Eventually, we will definitely get a follow focus.
Kit
ESTEBEVERDE
Veteran
Very Nice!
711
Well-known member
Nathan Troutman
Active member
This is my favorite T1i video that I've seen. Not my work but really well done if you ask me - especially from a $750 camera. Absolutely an amazing time to be making videos.
http://www.vimeo.com/5603639
http://www.vimeo.com/5603639
Gary B. Phillips
New member
Anyone have any more detail on this?
I'm curious about dislodging the lens to get the desired f-stop? I thought you couldn't set the ISO and shutter speed in video mode?
Nathan Troutman
Active member
You can't "set" shutter and ISO but you can lock the settings so they don't change. So with a little playing around - ie pointing the camera at a brighter area or darker area or opening or closing down the F-stop (with an older manual lens) etc. you can get the camera eventually to hit shutter speeds and/or ISO settings closer to what you want. Then you hit exposure lock and then re-compose your shot. Finally you can use the exposure compensation wheel to fine tune the ISO/shutter setting. I'm basing this technique from my 5D experience as it seems the T1i acts just like the 5D did before the manual control firmware update.
Now to dislodging the lens. This is a workaround for using auto Canon or third-party (tamaron, sigma) lenses. All you're doing is disconnecting the pins on the lens from the camera. You can also tape or use a mylar ring around the lens which also does the same thing. The goal is to prevent the camera from being able to talk to the lens. Now I'm not a Canon lens expert but I don't think many if any EF and EF-S lenses have aperture rings - so you only get fully open on the lens and don't have the ability to stop down the lens at all. It's just wide open.
I've always used manual Nikon lenses and a simple Nikon to Canon adapter to get manual F-stop control. I think this was the big reason Canon finally gave full manual control for the 5D - because people were buying and using Nikon manual lenses so they could at least get F-stop control in the video mode. Having a manual lens with an aperture ring also makes it easier for tricking and locking the ISO and shutter speed since you can close down or open up the F-stop to trick the camera into the right shutter/ISO settings you want.
In the end if all of this makes your head spin in actual operation it really does work and it will make more sense if you do it more. If you want true manual control I'd wait for the 60D (at probably twice the price of the T1i) launch which should be sometime this fall. Otherwise you need to make the step up to the 5DMkII or go to another camera manufacturer like Panasonic with the GH1.